The present invention relates to toy vehicles.
More particularly, the present invention relates to an engine-sound accessory for an electric toy vehicle.
In toy vehicle games such as, for example, the familiar slot car and slotless car racing games, two or more participants individually control the speed of different toy vehicles. Toy vehicle manufacturers have attempted to attain the maximum realism in their games within physical and economic constraints. Such desire for realism has resulted in the introduction of slotless car racers which, although constrained to a track, are capable of changing lanes. Such slotless car racers are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,078,799.
Each participant feeds a variable voltage to his controlled vehicle usually using a hand control apparatus containing a variable resistor. In response to the varying voltage fed thereto, the torque or acceleration applied to the toy vehicle is varied.
As a further attempt to enhance the realism of such toy vehicles, U.S. Pat. No. 3,425,156 discloses an engine sound simulator which employs the voltage fed to the track of a toy vehicle to control the frequency of a relaxation oscillator for generating a signal which, when amplified, drives a loudspeaker to simulate sound.
An engine sound simulator such as disclosed in the prior art, provides an artificial sound which is responsive only to the voltage fed to the toy vehicle and is not directly related to the torque or acceleration thereof.